The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Shuttleworth remixes Ubuntu... for biz users

No offense to RHEL, m'kay?

Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software

Inspired by the tweaks of Ubuntu-using IT departments, Canonical has released a Business Desktop Remix of Ubuntu.

Re-chopping Ubuntu according to the most common changes that business users make to their installs, Canonical product leader Mark Shuttleworth hopes that the new desktop-friendly boot will make it easier for businesses to work out how they can use the operating system. "Booting straight into a business-oriented image makes it easier for institutional users to evaluate Ubuntu Desktop for their specific needs", he said in a blog introducing the remix.

The remix strips out media player, games and social media elements while adding in certain components useful for business workflow including the Adobe Flash Plugin, VMware View, and the OpenJDK 6 Java run-time environment. But don't worry, the remix will be compatible with all Ubuntu-friendly hardware and software and it meets all Ubuntu's standards on remixes:

Before anyone gets all worked up and conspiratorial: everything in the remix is available from the standard Software Centre.

But a EULA is required for the download:

Some applications like VMWare View are included in this release under a proprietary license so download is covered by an EULA, and this image can’t be mirrored unless you make prior arrangements with the relevant ISVs. Boring, but better to do it once than for every individual app.

Shuttleworth emphasises that Canonical's move into the desktop enterprise space isn't a dig at Red Hat's enterprise version of Linux (RHEL) which has never really taken off. They're just making Ubuntu a bit more convenient for its enterprise users.

The project has been under construction since the Ubuntu Developer Summit in October. ®

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

@Tristan Young

"Canonical's distros have left a sour taste in my mouth."

Try putting the disk in your drive instead.

16
1

Still Unity desktop though?

...about as business-like as my fisher-price laptop.

13
1

John Shuttleworth? can we expect Ubuntu to have a nice start up sound performed on a Casio keyboard?

10
1

More from The Register

SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix
Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux
Bjarne Again: Hallelujah for C++
Plus: Now officially OK to admit you never used STL algorithms
Interwebs taunt Sir Jony over Apple eye candy makeover
Hey Ive, Ive... add more unicorns, willya?
Apple: iOS7 dayglo Barbie makeover is UNFINISHED - report
Plus: You don't like the icons? Blame marketing
Red Hat to ditch MySQL for MariaDB in RHEL 7
So long, Oracle! Don't let the door hit you on the way out
Shy? Socially inadequate? Fiddling with your phone could help
App 'tells the brutal truth' about social inadequates' chatup lines
Java EE 7 melds HTML5 with enterprise apps
New release arrives with GlassFish, NetBeans support
 breaking news
'Office Facebook' firm Tibbr wants you to PAY for mobe-meetings app
Great idea. Punters won't cough for it though
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
PM Cameron calls for modern, programmable computers! (We think)
IT education musings to G8 chiefs to mystify IT industry